The Albert Memorial - Kensington Gardens - The Royal Parks The Albert Memorial The Albert Memorial The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens is one of London's most ornate monuments. It commemorates the death of Prince Albert in 1861 of typhoid. The Albert Memorial is located in Kensington Gardens on Albert Memorial Road opposite the Royal Albert Hall. It is one of London's most ornate monuments, designed by George Gilbert Scott. Unveiled in 1872, The Albert Memorial commemorates the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, who died of typhoid fever at the age of 42. Influenced by the series of 13th Century Eleanor Crosses (Charing Cross perhaps being the most famous) and other statues in Edinburgh and Manchester, the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens is one of the grandest high-Victorian gothic extravaganzas anywhere. Officially titled the Prince Consort National Memorial, it celebrates Victorian achievement and Prince Albert's passions and interests. The memorial shows Prince Albert holding the catalogue of the Great Exhibition, held in Hyde Park in 1851, which he inspired and helped to organise.

Marble figures representing Europe, Asia, Africa and America stand at each corner of the memorial, and higher up are further figures representing manufacture, commerce, agriculture and engineering. Yet further up, near the top, are gilded bronze statues of the angels and virtues. All around the base of the memorial the Parnassus frieze depicts celebrated painters, poets sculptors, musicians and architects, reflecting Albert's enthusiasm for the arts. There are 187 exquisitely carved figures in the frieze. Albert Memorial Architecture - London Hyde Park - e-architect Location: northside of Kensington Gore, Hyde Park / Kensington Gardens, West London photos © Nick Weall Date of consruction: 1872-76 Architect: George Gilbert Scott Unveiled in 1872, The Albert Memorial commemorates the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, who died of typhoid fever at the age of 42. Influenced by the series of 13th Century Eleanor Crosses (Charing Cross is a famous example) and other statues in Edinburgh and Manchester, the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens is one of the grandest high-Victorian gothic extravaganzas anywhere.

Officially titled the Prince Consort National Memorial, the design by architect George Gilbert Scott celebrates Victorian achievement and Prince Albert’s passions and interests. photos © Adrian Welch The memorial shows Prince Albert holding the catalogue of the Great Exhibition, held in Hyde Park in 1851, which he inspired and helped to organise. Marble figures representing Europe, Asia, Africa and America stand at each corner of the memorial, and higher up are further figures representing manufacture, commerce, agriculture and engineering. Yet further up, near the top, are gilded bronze statues of the angels and virtues. All around the base of the memorial the Parnassus frieze depicts celebrated painters, poets sculptors, musicians and architects, reflecting Albert’s enthusiasm for the arts. There are 187 exquisitely carved figures in the frieze. photos © Adrian Welch Address: Kensington Gardens, London W2 2UH Phone: 020 7298 2000 Albert Memorial Albert Memorial 1872 Location Mismanagement had damaged the project for a grand memorial to Prince Albert in Hyde Park, in the opinion of Building News of 24 April 1863.

It said anything built subsequently that could be said to resemble art would exceed everyone’s low expectations. What was ultimately erected, through its rich decoration and sculptures, symbolically brought together the arts, sciences and industries that Albert promoted during his life. There can, indeed, be no doubt that the public expect a monument of great and conspicuous magnificence George Gilbert Scott in the Builder , 18 April 1863, p.276 ‘Architecture’ mosaic, one of the four external mosaics representing the arts, Albert Memorial. © Wilson Yau Two days earlier Scott won the competition to design the Albert Memorial, beating the entries of six other invited architects including Charles Barry Junior, E.M. Barry and Philip Charles Hardwick. This expensive example of Victorian architecture, a symbol of a monarch’s grief and paid for by public subscription, is the most grandiose memorial to Prince Albert. Many smaller memorials were built across the British Empire, something that Building News considered had diverted energy and funds away from the creation a greater imperial monument in Hyde Park. The structure is to have a shrine-like appearance, and be enriched to the utmost extent all the arts can go.

Building News, 3 April 1863, p.307 Despite reservations about the rejection of the Classical style that Albert was reported to have favoured, Building News's description of Scott’s Gothic design is remarkably similar to what was built – lavishly decorated and with a seated statue of Prince Albert underneath a canopy, but with one exception. What today is still a major landmark in the area of London dubbed ' Albertopolis ' could have disregarded all practicalities and been nearly twice the size and height, reaching 300 ft high, according to Building News . This idea, intended to make Scott’s design even more striking by simply increasing its size, was soon dropped. In the years after the Albert Memorial was officially opened by Queen Victoria in 1872, this monument has undergone changes in popularity mirroring that of Victorian architecture in general. Over a century of neglect was finally reversed in the 1990s when the Albert Memorial underwent a major restoration programme, preserving some of the most exuberant examples of Victorian art and craftsmanship.

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN London - The Albert Memorial London Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Schloss Rosenau, Coburg, 1819 - Windsor Castle 1861 husband of Queen Victoria 1872-75 Description Colossal bronze gilt statue, enshrined in a Gothic canopy, with spire rising to 53 meter, supported by four clustered piers of granite. There are four projecting pedestals supporting marble groups representing the four Industries. Around the base is a frieze with 189 composers, architects, poets, painters, and sculptors, the so-called Frieze of Parnassus (actually, only 187 different persons Michelangelo and Rhoecus appear both twice). The whole is on a spacious platform approached by flights of granite steps. At the corners of the steps are pedestals bearing allegorical marble figures of the continents. The architect of the monument is Sir Gilbert Scott. The memorial was opened to the public in 1872, the statue of Albert was only installed in 1875. Sculptors: Armstead: B4 (nos.

2,3,6,7), D1; He was in overall charge of designing the statuary of the memorial. Bell: E.4. Philip: B1, B4 (nos. 1,4,5,8), D2. Redfern: B2. Mosaics designed by Clayton and Bell and executed by Salviati. A. Statue of Albert Sculpted by John Henry Foley, completed by Thomas Brock; cast in bronze by Henry Prince and Company, of Southwark, 1875 Signed: j.h. foley, r.a. Sculp.r london Bronze gilt statue of Prince Albert, seated, holding the catalogue of the Great Exhibition, and robed as a Knight of the Garter. He is shown looking south, towards the Royal Albert Hall. The statue is enshrined in a Gothic canopy B. Canopy B1. Angels and Cross Sculpted by John Birnie Philip Towards the top of tower, are eight gilded angels in two tiers. The upper angels raising their arms heavenwards, the lower tier shows angels with their arms outspread. At the very top of the tower is a gold cross B2.

Virtues Sculpted by James Redfern Near the top of the canopy's tower are eight statues of the moral and Christian virtues. On the corners are the four cardinal virtues Fortitude, Prudence, Justice and Temperance; and in the faces the three theological virtues Faith, Hope, Charity, with Humility as the fourth, considered to be annexed to the virtue of temperance. Justice, Hope and Fortitude Temperance, Faith, and Justice B3. Mosaics Designed by John Clayton, of the Victorian firm of Clayton and Bell; and manufactured by the firm of Salviati from Murano, Venice. The memorial's canopy features several mosaics as external and internal decorative artworks. Each of the four external mosaics show a central allegorical figure of the four arts, supported by two historical figures either side: POESIS - Poetry, with david and homer (the latter is also depicted in the Frieze of Parnassus, D, no. 19). Poesis carries a little scroll which lists Shakespeare, Molière, Milton, Goethe, and, oddly, Homer again.

PICTURA - Painting, with apelles and raphael (the latter is also depicted in the Frieze of Parnassus, D, no. 59). ARCHITECTURA - Architecture, with solomon and ictinus (the latter is also depicted in the Frieze of Parnassus, D2, no. 35). Architecture holds a design of the Albert Memorial itself. SCULPTURA - Sculpture, with phidias and m.angelo (Michelangelo) (both are also depicted in the Frieze of Parnassus, Phidias, no. 131, and Michelangelo even twice, 60 and 146). POESIS ARCHITECTURA SCULPTURA Around the canopy, below its cornice, is a dedicatory legend split into four parts, one for each side. The legend reads: QUEEN VICTORIA AND HER PEOPLE TO THE MEMORY OF ALBERT PRINCE CONSORT AS A TRIBUTE OF THEIR GRATITUDE FOR A LIFE DEVOTED TO THE PUBLIC GOOD. B4.

Practical arts and sciences Sculpted by Henry Hugh Armstead (2,3,6,7) and John Birnie Philip (1,4,5,8) The pillars and niches of the canopy feature eight statues representing the practical arts and sciences: On the four pillars: 8. PHILOSOPHY C. Industries At the corners of the base, on projecting pedestals in de Frieze of Parnassus, are four groups depicting Victorian industrial arts and sciences. Each is based on a central standing allegorical statue of a girl with three accompanying figures. (SW corner) AGRICULTURE, a Classical group of shepherd with sheep, muscular labourer with modern tools, and a seated girl with sheaf of corn, with the central figure making a benedictory gesture. Sculpted by William Calder Marshall Signed: w. calder marshall. r.a. Sc. (SE corner)MANUFACTURES, including a Herculaean figure with anvil opposed to a charmingly draped girl seated on two bales.

Sculpted by Henry Weekes (NE corner) COMMERCE, the central figure holds a rather modest cornucopia, and is closely surrounded by three merchants with their wares. Sculpted by Thomas Thornycroft Signed: t. thornycroft Sc. (NW corner) ENGINEERING, a variety of mechanical devices, but while one figure of a miner has modern clothing and boots, the others are draped in classical garb. Sculpted by John Lawlor ENGINEERING D. Frieze of Parnassus The central part of the memorial is surrounded by the elaborate sculptural Frieze of Parnassus (named after Mount Parnassus, the favorite resting place for the Greek muses), which depicts 169 life-size full-length sculptures, a mixture of low-relief and high-relief, of individual composers, architects, poets, painters, and sculptors. Musicians and poets were placed on the south side, with painters on the east side, sculptors on the west side, and architects on the north side. The total length of the frieze is approximately 64 meter. D1.

South and east side: Painters, musicians and poets by Henry Hugh Armstead Signed: h.h. armstead sculpt. (front of SE and NE corner pedestals) 80 painters, musicians and poets, grouped by national schools. South South side of SW corner pedestal: Musicians auber: Daniel Auber (1782-1871), French composer ( Wikipedia ). mehul: Étienne Méhul (1763-1817), French composer ( Wikipedia ). rameau: Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), French composer and music theorist ( Wikipedia ). lulli: Giovanni Battista Lulli or Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), Italian-born French composer( Wikipedia ). gretry: André Grétry (1741-1813), composer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège ( Wikipedia ). josquin-des-pres: Josquin des Prez (c. 1450/55-1521), Netherlandish composer ( Wikipedia ).

rossini: Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), Italian composer ( Wikipedia ). monteverde: Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), Italian composer, gambist, singer and Roman Catholic priest ( Wikipedia ). carissimi: Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674), Italian composer ( Wikipedia ). palestrina: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594), Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music ( Wikipedia ). South side, central part: Left (click for enlargement) guido d'arezzo: Guido of Arezzo (991/2-after 1033), Italian music theorist ( Wikipedia ). st ambrose: Ambrose (c. 340-397), archbishop of Milan, promoted 'antiphonal chant' and composed Veni redemptor gentium, a Christmas hymn ( Wikipedia ). Poets corneille: Pierre Corneille (1606-1684), French tragedian ( Wikipedia ).

moliere: Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière (1622-1673), French playwright and actor ( Wikipedia ). See also B3.1. cervantes: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616), Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright ( Wikipedia ). Middle (click for enlargement) virgil: Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BC), Roman poet( Wikipedia ). dante: Durante degli Alighieri, called Dante (c. 1265-1321), Italian poet ( Wikipedia ). pythagoras: Pythagoras (c. 570-c. 495 BC), Ionian Greek philosopher and mathematician ( Wikipedia ). homer: Homer (7th or 8th centuries BC), the traditionally-credited creator of the Iliad and the Odyssey ( Wikipedia ) (also depicted in the mosaics on the canopy, B3). chaucer: Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400), English poet ( Wikipedia ).

shakespeare: William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English poet, playwright and actor ( Wikipedia ). See also B3.1. Right (click for enlargement) milton: John Milton (1608-1674), English poet, polemicist, and man of letters ( Wikipedia ). See also B3.1. goethe: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), German writer and statesman ( Wikipedia ). See also B3.1. schiller: Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright ( Wikipedia ). Musicians bach: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), German composer and musician ( Wikipedia ). gluck: Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787), German composer ( Wikipedia ). handel: George Frideric Handel or Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759), German-born, British Baroque composer ( Wikipedia ).

(click for enlargement) South side of SE corner pedestal: mozart: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Austrian composer ( Wikipedia ). mendelssohn: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847), German composer, pianist, organist and conductor ( Wikipedia ). haydn: Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Austrian composer ( Wikipedia ). weber: Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic ( Wikipedia ). beethoven: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), German composer and pianist ( Wikipedia ). tallis: Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585), English composer ( Wikipedia ). o. gibbons: Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), English composer, virginalist and organist ( Wikipedia ). lawes: Henry Lawes (1595-1662), English musician and composer ( Wikipedia ). purcell: Henry Purcell (1659-1695), English composer ( Wikipedia ).

(click for enlargement) Front of SE corner pedestal: arne: Thomas Arne (1710-1778) British composer ( Wikipedia ). boyce: William Boyce (1711-1779), English composer ( Wikipedia ). bishop: Henry Bishop (1786-1855), English composer ( Wikipedia ). English Painters turner: J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851), English Romantic landscape painter, water-colourist, and printmaker ( Wikipedia ). wilkie: David Wilkie (1785-1841), Scottish painter ( Wikipedia ). reynolds: Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), English painter, specialising in portraits ( Wikipedia ). East East side of SE corner pedestal: gainsborough: Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), English portrait and landscape painter ( Wikipedia ). hogarth: William Hogarth (1697-1764), English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist ( Wikipedia ).

Dutch, Flemish and German Painters rembrandt: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669), Dutch painter and etcher ( Wikipedia ). rubens: Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Flemish Baroque painter ( Wikipedia ). holbein: Hans Holbein the Younger (ca. 1497-1543), German artist and printmaker ( Wikipedia ). durer: Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), German painter, engraver, printmaker, mathematician, and theorist ( Wikipedia ). h. van eyck: Hubert van Eyck (c.1385/90-1426), Early Netherlandish painter ( Wikipedia ). j. van eyck: Jan van Eyck (before c. 1390-before 1441), Early Netherlandish painter ( Wikipedia ). East side, central part: stephen of cologne: Stefan Lochner (1400 or 1410-1451), German painter ( Wikipedia ).

Italian Painters cimabue: Cimabue (c. 1240-1302), Florentine painter and creator of mosaics ( Wikipedia ). orcagna: Orcagna (c. 1308-1368), Italian painter, sculptor, and architect ( Wikipedia ). giotto: Giotto di Bondone (1266/67-1337), Italian painter and architect ( Wikipedia ). fra angelico: Fra Angelico (c. 1395-1455), Italian Renaissance painter ( Wikipedia ). ghirlandajo: Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494), Italian Renaissance painter ( Wikipedia ). masaccio: Masaccio (1401-1428), Italian painter ( Wikipedia ). Middle (click for enlargement) l. da vinci: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian polymath, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer( Wikipedia ).

raphael: Raphael (1483-1520), Italian painter and architect ( Wikipedia ) (also depicted in the mosaics on the canopy, B3). michael angelo: Michelangelo (1475-1564), Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer ( Wikipedia ) (also depicted as sculptor, no. 146 and in the mosaics on the canopy, B3). Right (click for enlargement) bellini: Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430-1516), Italian Renaissance painter ( Wikipedia ). titian: Titian (c. 1488/90-1576), Italian painter ( Wikipedia ). mantegna: Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431-1506), Italian painter ( Wikipedia ). p. veronese: Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), Italian Renaissance painter ( Wikipedia ). tintoretto: Tintoretto (1518-1594), Italian painter ( Wikipedia ). coreggio: Antonio da Correggio (1489-1534), Italian painter ( Wikipedia ).

an. caracci: Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), Italian Baroque painter ( Wikipedia ). l. caracci: Ludovico Carracci (1555-1619), Italian, early-Baroque painter, etcher, and printmaker ( Wikipedia ). (click for enlargement) West side of NE corner pedestal: Spanish Painters velasquez: Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), Spanish painter ( Wikipedia ). murillo: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1618-1682), Spanish Baroque painter ( Wikipedia ). French Painters poussin: Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), French painter ( Wikipedia ). claude: Claude Lorrain (c. 1600-1682), French painter, draughtsman and engraver ( Wikipedia ). david: Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), French painter ( Wikipedia ). gerard: François Gérard (1770-1837), French painter ( Wikipedia ).

gericault: Théodore Géricault (1791-1824), French painter and lithographer ( Wikipedia ). (click for enlargement) Front of NE corner pedestal: delacroix: Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), French Romantic artist ( Wikipedia ). vernet: Claude Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), French painter ( Wikipedia ). delaroche: Paul Delaroche (1797-1856), French painter ( Wikipedia ). ingres: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), French Neoclassical painter ( Wikipedia ). decamps: Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (1803-1860), French painter ( Wikipedia ). D2. West and north side: Sculptors and architects Sculpted by John Birnie Philip Signed: j.b. philip sculpt. (front of SW and NW corner pedestals) 89 sculptors and architects in chronological order (Only 88 persons: Rhoecus is included among the sculptors as well as the architects).

North North side of NE corner pedestal: Architects pugin: Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852), English architect, designer, artist and critic ( Wikipedia ). scott: George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878), English Gothic revival architect; designer of the Prince Albert memorial ( Wikipedia ). cockerell: Samuel Pepys Cockerell (1754-1827), English architect ( Wikipedia ). barry: Charles Barry (1795-1860), English architect ( Wikipedia ). chambers: Sir William Chambers (1723-1796), Scottish-Swedish architect ( Wikipedia ). vanbrugh: John Vanbrugh (1664-1726), English architect and dramatist ( Wikipedia ). wren: Christopher Wren (1632-1723), English architect ( Wikipedia ). inigo jones: Inigo Jones (1573-1652), British architect ( Wikipedia ). mansart: Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646-1708), French architect ( Wikipedia ).

thorpe: John Thorpe c.1565-1655?; fl.1570-1618), English architect ( Wikipedia ). palladio: Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), Italian architect ( Wikipedia ). vignola: Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (1507-1573), Italian architect ( Wikipedia ). North side, central part: delorme: Philibert de l'Orme (c. 1514-1570), French architect ( Wikipedia ). sansovino: Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570), Italian sculptor and architect ( Wikipedia ). san gallo: Giuliano da Sangallo (c. 1445-1516), Italian sculptor, architect and military engineer ( Wikipedia ). peruzzi: Baldassare Peruzzi (1481-1536), Italian architect and painter ( Wikipedia ). bramante: Donato Bramante (1444-1514), Italian architect ( Wikipedia ).

william of wykeham: William of Wykeham (1320 or 24-1404), Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England; did architectural work for King Edward III ( Wikipedia ). alberti: Leone Battista Alberti (1404-1472), Italian humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher and cryptographer ( Wikipedia ). brunelleschi: Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), Italian architect and engineer ( Wikipedia ). Middle (click for enlargement) giotto: Giotto di Bondone (1266/67-1337), Italian painter and architect ( Wikipedia ). arnolfo di lapo: Arnolfo di Cambio (c. 1240 - 1300/10), Italian architect and sculptor ( Wikipedia ). erwin von steinbach: Erwin von Steinbach (c. 1244-1318), German architect ( Wikipedia ). jehan de chelles: Jean de Chelles (fl. 1258-1265), French master mason and sculptor ( Wikipedia ).

rob de coucy: Robert De Coucy (d. 1311), French master-builder ( Wikipedia ). Right (click for enlargement) william of sens: William of Sens, 12th-century French architect ( Wikipedia ). william the englishman: William the Englishman (fl. from 1174, d. c. 1214), English architect and stonemason ( Wikipedia ). abbe suger: Abbot Suger (c. 1081 - 1151), French abbot, statesman, historian and one of the earliest patrons of Gothic architecture ( Wikipedia ). anthemius: Anthemius of Tralles (c. 474-bef. 558), Greek professor of Geometry in Constantinople and architect ( Wikipedia ). hermodorus, 4th century BC ( Wikipedia ). (click for enlargement) North side of NW corner pedestal: apollodorus: Apollodorus of Damascus, 2nd century AD, Greek engineer, architect, designer and sculptor ( Wikipedia ). callimachus: Callimachus, 5th century BC, Greek architect and sculptor ( Wikipedia ).

libon: Libon, 5th-century BC, Greek architect ( Wikipedia ). callicrates: Callicrates, 5th century BC, Greek architect ( Wikipedia ). ictinus: Ictinus, 5th century BC, Greek architect ( Wikipedia ) (also depicted in the mosaics on the canopy, B3). mnesikles: Mnesikles, 5th century BC, Athenian architect ( Wikipedia ). chersiphron: Chersiphron, 6th century BC, architect of Knossos ( Wikipedia ). rhoecus: Rhoecus, 6th century BC, Samian sculptor ( Wikipedia ). He appears twice in the frieze, see no. 128. metagenes: Metagenes, 6th century BC, Cretan architect, son of Chersiphron [no. 37] ( Wikipedia ). theodorus: Theodorus of Samos, 6th century BC, Greek sculptor and architect ( Wikipedia ). (click for enlargement) Front of NW corner pedestal: hiram: Hiram Abiff, chief architect of King Solomon's Temple ( Wikipedia ).

His name is inscribed twice, either side of the corner point on the frieze where the figure is located. bezaleel: Bezalel, chief artisan of the Tabernacle and was in charge of building the Ark of the Covenant ( Wikipedia ). sennacherib: Sennacherib, King of Assyria, 705-681 BC, whose reign was marked by architectural renovations, constructions and expansions ( Wikipedia ). nitocris: Nitocris (23rd century BC), Egyptian pharaoh, supposedly she built the 'third pyramid' at Giza ( Wikipedia ). The only woman among the 169 persons on the frieze. cheops: Khufu (26th century BC), Egyptian pharaoh, commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza ( Wikipedia ). West West side of NW corner pedestal: Sculptors egyptian. assyrian. rhoecus: Rhoecus, 6th century BC, Samian sculptor ( Wikipedia ). He appears twice in the frieze, see no. 118. dibutades: Butades, about 600 BC? first ancient Greek modeller in clay ( Wikipedia ).

bupalus: Bupalus, 6th century BC, member of the school of sculpture in marble in Chios ( Wikipedia ). phidias: Phidias (c. 480 - 430 BC), Greek sculptor, painter and architect ( Wikipedia ) (also depicted in the mosaics on the canopy, B3). scopas: Scopas (395 BC-350 BC), Greek sculptor and architect ( Wikipedia ). bryaxis: Bryaxis (born c. 350 BC), Greek sculptor ( Wikipedia ). leochares: Leochares, 4th century BC, sculptor from Athens ( Wikipedia ). praxiteles: Praxiteles, 4th century BC, Attic sculptor ( Wikipedia ). lysippus: Lysippos, 4th century BC, Greek sculptor ( Wikipedia ). chares: Chares of Lindos (fl. 280 BC), Greek sculptor ( Wikipedia ).

West side, central part: Left (click for enlargement) giuliano di ravenna: probably Giuliano Argentario, 6th century, Greek banker, who sponsored the construction of the Basilica of San Vitale and the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna (Cf. Wikipedia ) niccola pisano: Nicola Pisano (c. 1220/1225 - c. 1284), Italian sculptor ( Wikipedia ). ghiberti: Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), Florentine Italian artist ( Wikipedia ). torell: William Torell (13th century), English sculptor ( Wikipedia ). luca della robbia: Luca della Robbia (1399/1400-1482), Italian sculptor ( Wikipedia ). william of ireland: William of Ireland (13th century), English sculptor (Cf. Wikipedia ). Middle (click for enlargement) verrocchio: Andrea del Verrocchio (c. 1435 - 1488), Italian painter, sculptor, and goldsmith ( Wikipedia ).

donatello: Donatello (c. 1386-1466), Italian sculptor ( Wikipedia ). michael angelo: Michelangelo (1475-1564), Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer ( Wikipedia ) (also depicted as painter, no. 60 and in the mosaics on the canopy, B3). torrigiano: Pietro Torrigiano (1472-1528), Italian sculptor ( Wikipedia ). gian di bologna: Giambologna of Jean Boulogne (1529-1608), Flemish sculptor ( Wikipedia ). bandinelli: Bartolommeo Bandinelli (1493-1560), Italian sculptor, draughtsman and painter ( Wikipedia ). Right (click for enlargement) vischer: Peter Vischer the Elder (c. 1455-1529), German sculptor ( Wikipedia ). cellini: Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), Italian goldsmith, sculptor, draftsman, soldier and musician ( Wikipedia ).

baccio d'agnolo: Baccio D'Agnolo (1462-1543), Italian woodcarver, sculptor and architect ( Wikipedia ). goujon: Jean Goujon (c. 1510-c. 1565), French Renaissance sculptor and architect ( Wikipedia ). palissy: Bernard Palissy (c. 1510-c. 1590), French Huguenot potter, hydraulics engineer and craftsman ( Wikipedia ). bontemps: Pierre Bontemps (c. 1505-1568), French sculptor ( Wikipedia ). (click for enlargement) West side of SW corner pedestal: pilon: Germain Pilon (c. 1537-1590), French Renaissance sculptor ( Wikipedia ). cano: Alonzo Cano (1601-1667), Spanish painter, architect and sculptor ( Wikipedia ). stone: Nicholas Stone (1586/87-1647), English sculptor and architect ( Wikipedia ). bernini: Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), Italian artist and a prominent architect ( Wikipedia ).

cibber: Caius Gabriel Cibber (1630-1700), Danish sculptor ( Wikipedia ). puget: Pierre Paul Puget (1620-1694), French painter, sculptor, architect and engineer ( Wikipedia ). gibbons: Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721), Dutch-British sculptor and wood carver ( Wikipedia ). bird: Francis Bird (1667-1731), English sculptor ( Wikipedia ). bushnell: John Bushnell (d. 1701), English sculptor ( Wikipedia ). roubiliac: Louis-François Roubiliac (1702/05-1762), French sculptor ( Wikipedia ). (click for enlargement) Albert Memorial | London Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit The Memorial statue of Albert, by John Henry Foley and Thomas Brock When Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861 at the age of 42, the thoughts of those in government and public life turned to the form and shape of a suitable memorial, with several possibilities, such as establishing a university or international scholarships, being mentioned.

Queen Victoria, however, soon made it clear that she desired a memorial 'in the common sense of the word'. The initiative was taken by the Lord Mayor of London, William Cubitt, who, at a meeting on 14 January 1862, appointed a committee to raise funds for a design to be approved by the Queen. The control and future course of the project, though, moved away from Mansion House, and ended up being controlled by people close to the Queen, rather than the Mayor. Those who determined the overall direction from that point on were the Queen's secretary, General Charles Grey, and the keeper of the privy purse, Sir Charles Phipps. Later, following the deaths of Grey and Phipps, their roles were taken on by Sir Henry Ponsonby and Sir Thomas Biddulph. Eventually, a four-man steering committee was established, led by Sir Charles Lock Eastlake. Eastlake had overall control for the project until his death in 1865. An initial proposal for an obelisk memorial failed, and this was followed in May 1862 by the appointment of a seven-strong committee of architects. A range of designs were submitted and examined.

Two of the designs (those by Philip Charles Hardwick and George Gilbert Scott) were passed to the Queen in February 1863 for a final decision to be made. Two months later, after lengthy deliberations and negotiations with the government over the costs of the memorial, Scott's design was formally approved in April 1863. Statue of Albert Edit The central statue of Albert, by John Henry Foley, was ceremonially "seated" in 1875, three years after the memorial opened. The statue faces to the south, towards the Royal Albert Hall. Albert is holding a catalogue of The Great Exhibition, and is robed as a Knight of the Garter. Frieze of Parnassus Edit The central part of the memorial is surrounded by the elaborate sculptural Frieze of Parnassus (named after Mount Parnassus, the favorite resting place for the Greek muses), which depicts 169 individual composers, architects, poets, painters, and sculptors. Musicians and poets were placed on the south side, with painters on the east side, sculptors on the west side, and architects on the north side.

Henry Hugh Armstead carved the figures on the south and east side, the painters, musicians and poets (80 in total), and grouped them by national schools. John Birnie Philip carved the figures on the west and north side, the sculptors and architects, and arranged them in chronological order. Allegorical sculptures Edit At the corners of the central area, and at the corners of the outer area, there are two allegorical sculpture programs: four groups depicting Victorian industrial arts and sciences (agriculture, commerce, engineering and manufacturing), and four more groups representing Europe, Asia, Africa and The Americas at the four corners, each continent-group including several ethnographic figures and a large animal. (A camel for Africa, a buffalo for the Americas, an elephant for Asia and a bull for Europe.) "Asia" group Edit The mosaics for each side and beneath the canopy of the Memorial were designed by Clayton and Bell and manufactured by the firm of Salviati from Murano, Venice. The memorial's canopy features several mosaics as external and internal decorative artworks. Each of the four external mosiacs show a central allegorical figure of the four arts (poetry, painting, architecture and sculpture), supported by two historical figures either side.

The historical figures are: King David and Homer (POESIS - poetry), Apelles and Raphael (painting), Solomon and Ictinus (architecture), and Phidias and Michelangelo (sculpture). Materials used in the mosaics include enamel, polished stone, agate, onyx, jasper, cornelian, crystal, marble, and granite. Around the canopy, below its cornice, is a dedicatory legend split into four parts, one for each side. The legend reads: Queen Victoria And Her People • To The Memory Of Albert Prince Consort • As A Tribute Of Their Gratitude • For A Life Devoted To The Public Good. The pillars and niches of the canopy feature eight statues representing the practical arts and sciences: Astronomy, Geology, Chemistry, Geometry (on the four pillars) and Rhetoric, Medicine, Philosophy and Physiology (in the four niches). Near the top of the canopy's tower are eight statues of the moral and Christian virtues, including the four cardinal virtues and the three theological virtues. The virtues are: Faith, Hope, Charity and Humility, and Fortitude, Prudence, Justice and Temperance. Humility is considered to be annexed to the virtue of temperance.

Above these, towards the top of tower, are gilded angels raising their arms heavenwards. At the very top of the tower is a gold cross. The exterior mosaic of Phidias and Michelangelo View of the internal mosaics and the cornicing Statues of the Virtues on the canopy tower Below the Memorial is a large undercroft, consisting of numerous brick arches, which serves as the foundation that supports the large weight of the stone and metal used to build the monument. Architects Edit The memorial was planned by a committee of architects led by Sir George Gilbert Scott. The other architects, some of whom died during the course of the project, or were replaced, included Carlo Marochetti, Thomas Leverton Donaldson, William Tite, Sydney Smirke, James Pennethorne, Matthew Digby Wyatt, Philip C. Hardwick, William Burn and Edward Middleton Barry.

Sculptors Edit The sculptor Henry Hugh Armstead coordinated this massive effort among many artists of the Royal Academy, including Thomas Thornycroft (carved the "Commerce" group), Patrick MacDowell (carved the "Europe" group, his last major work), John Bell (carved the "America" group), John Henry Foley (carved the "Asia" group and started the statue of Albert), William Theed (carved the "Africa" group), William Calder Marshall, James Redfern (carved the four Christian and four moral virtues including Fortitude), John Lawlor (carved the "Engineering" group) and Henry Weekes (carved the "Manufactures" group). The Scottish sculptor William Calder Marshall carved the "Agriculture" group. The figure of Albert himself, although started by Foley, was completed by Thomas Brock, in what was Brock's first major work. Armstead created some 80 of the figure sculptures on the southern and eastern sides of the memorial's podium. The north and west sides were carved by the sculptor John Birnie Philip. Armstead also sculpted the bronze statues representing Astronomy, Chemistry, Rhetoric, and Medicine.

Henry Weekes carved the allegorical work Manufactures (1864–70). Although Weekes was not on Queen Victoria's original list of sculptors, being selected to work on the project only after John Gibson declined to participate, his group occupies the preferable south side of the finished monument. A central female figure holds an hourglass, symbolising the critical nature of time to industry, while an ironworker stands at his anvil and a potter and weaver offer their wares. Later history Edit The railings after the restoration By the late 1990s the Memorial had fallen into a state of some decay. A thorough restoration was carried out by Mowlem which included cleaning, repainting and re-gilding the entire monument as well as carrying out structural repairs. In the process the cross on top of the monument, which had been put on sideways during an earlier restoration attempt, was returned to its correct position. Some of the restoration, including repairs to damaged friezes, were of limited success. The centrepiece of the Memorial is a seated figure of Prince Albert. Following restoration, this is now covered in gold leaf. For eighty years the statue had been covered in black paint.

Various theories had existed that it was deliberately blackened during World War I to prevent it becoming a target for Zeppelin bombing raids or domestic anti-German sentiment. However, English Heritage's research prior to the restoration suggests that the black coating pre-dates 1914 and may have been a response to atmospheric pollution that had destroyed the original gold leaf surface. Further restoration work, including re-pointing the steps surrounding the memorial, commenced in the summer of 2006. For the duration of that work, there is no public access within the ornate surrounding fence. Architectural influences Edit "America" group, Albert Memorial. Sculptor: John Bell "My idea in designing the Memorial," Gilbert Scott wrote, "was to erect a kind of ciborium to protect a statue of the Prince; and its special characteristic was that the ciborium was designed in some degree on the principles of the ancient shrines. These shrines were models of imaginary buildings, such as had never in reality been erected; and my idea was to realise one of these imaginary structures with its precious materials, its inlaying, its enamels, etc.

etc." The Albert Memorial was not the first revivalist design for a canopied statue in a Gothic style - the Scott Monument in Edinburgh had been designed by George Meikle Kemp over twenty years earlier. The popularity of the Prince Consort led to several other "Albert Memorials". There is some controversy as to whether the most notable of these, the memorial in Manchester in Albert Square in front of the town hall, which was completed before the Kensington Gardens memorial, was influenced by the publication of Scott's design or whether the architect Thomas Worthington came to his similar canopy design independently. External links The Albert Memorial The Albert Memorial [ Este documento está disponible en traducción española ] The Albert Memorial in Hyde Park in London is a monument generally — and not unjustly — considered the perfect symbol of this High Victorian period, more perfect than the Houses of Parliament (in the early sixties at last approaching completion) were of the previous Early Victorian period.

— Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Architecture Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (1963) General Information Architect: Sir George Gilbert Scott Designed: 1872 Completed: 1876 (unveiled by Queen Victoria) Height: 180 Feet British architecture: Victorian and Edwardian | Art and design | The Guardian Share on Messenger Close All architecture is a conversation about the nature of space. But for the Victorians it was a meditation on the meaning of time, too. In each bridge, church and terrace built during the reign of the great queen, you can see a negotiation with what has gone before. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the early Victorians' attitude to the buildings they inherited from their grandparents. The sight of street after street of regular, flat-fronted Georgian housing seemed not only dreary but downright dangerous. Had not the French Revolution been partly born of just such a rationalist impulse to legislate irregularity out of existence? Far from being evidence of a pleasing rationality, all that mild unbroken brickwork served as a chilling reminder of a neighbouring chaos that might spread at any moment.

One way of ensuring that didn't happen was to put God – not some milksop supreme being but a proper, stormy God – back into buildings. The chief prophet of this newly Christianised architecture was John Ruskin, who championed a return to the gothic vocabulary of the pre-Reformation period. All those yearning spires, expressive arches and gurning gargoyles in evidence at Salisbury and Ely seemed to speak of divinity as a force of nature. The most famous essay – Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin's Palace of Westminster – was followed by George Gilbert Scott's Albert Memorial and William Butterfield's red and white bricked Keble College, a streaky-bacon love song to one of the century's most influential high churchmen. But by the time Keble College opened its doors in 1872, God was increasingly on the run, chased out of many educated homes by the work of Charles Darwin. The neo-gothic style, however, proved itself equal to the temples of the new secular age. The Midland Grand Hotel – the face of St Pancras station – is one of the finest gothic revival buildings in existence.

Manchester Town Hall, meanwhile, disguised its status as a civic Johnny-come-lately with a facade that wouldn't look out of place on a 13th-century church of the Flemish school. Victorian architecture, though, was not simply an exercise in archaising. The Great Exhibition of 1851 telegraphed to the world that Britain led the way in all that was new, too. Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace was a wonder of modern engineering – plate glass bolted together by cast iron to create a vast segmented umbrella under which mature elm trees, as well as teeming crowds, nestled happily. Ruskin hated it, comparing the Palace to a giant greenhouse; the Palm House at Kew will give you a sense of what it might have been like. As well as bragging about Britain's pole position in the race for modernity, the Great Exhibition also exposed the nation's taste-makers to visual vocabularies from around the world. Moorish domes and spiky towers became just the thing for public buildings such as the Alhambra Palace in London's Leicester Square, or the oriental public baths in Leeds.

Later, in the 1870s, with the French no longer Britain's naturalenemies, Second Empire architecture became popular, with its telltale mansard roofs, dormer windows and bracketed balconies. That, though, was for people with money. For everyone else something with a higher density was required. This was the era of the working-class terraced house, tightly packed for factory workers in northern towns, though more generously spaced for London's lower middle classes with perhaps an additional flourish in the form of a bay window. These runs of domestic architecture tended to be in either the gothic or the classical style; it all depended which pattern book had been studied, which decorative bits and pieces purchased in bulk. Reacting to this careless pastiche, by the 1870s William Morris and his fellow Arts and Crafters evolved a cottage style that favoured an appreciation of the materials and processes involved in building homes that were useful, beautiful but, above all, honest. As the examples of Morris, Ruskin and Paxton suggest, Victorian thought about architecture was shot through with a morality that assumed that good buildings made good people. The problem was that no one could agree on what a good building looked like.

The result, as far as the many detractors were concerned, was a mash-up: a gothic pointed window there, a Palladian column there, a bit of Queen Anne by way of distraction. Yet with the passage of time, we are today more likely to regard 19th-century architecture with a respect born of recognition. For the Victorians, just like us, sought to make their world anew at a time when every possible style seemed already to have been exhausted. • Kathryn Hughes is a historian specialising in the Victorian era

Question: Which famous architect designed the Albert Memorial in London?
Answer: George Gilbert Scott